It’s been a few years since the last Mummy film went through cinemas, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was released in 2008 and had Brendan Fraser tackling a new Mummy portrayed by Jet Li.
That incarnation of the franchise is well and truly (no pun intended) wrapped up at this point, but that doesn’t mean we’re not getting more Mummy action on the big screen in the near future. Universal is the studio that owns many of these classic characters, and they are keen to reinvigorate them with new films.
The Mummy appears to be the first, with a planned 2016 release. It is now being reported that Alex Kurtzman will be in the director’s chair for the film.
Kurtzman is most well known for his writing work, he’s worked on a huge number of films/TV series including Amazing Spiderman, Star Trek, Fringe, Sleepy Hollow etc. His writing partner Roberto Orci has recently been put on directing duties for Star Trek 3, so it’s interesting that it looks like Kurtzman is trying out the same role on a different film. Unlike Orci however, this won’t be Kurtzman’s debut as a director, he was previously on directing duties for the film “People Like Us”, and is attached to direct the “Venom” film which forms part of the Amazing Spiderman cinematic universe.
Directing duties aside, Kurtzman unsurprisingly worked on the screenplay for the new Mummy film which reportedly takes place in the present day.